Final
Entry
29 September 2008
This is a significant, and odd moment, for a writer. The time when you consciously put your 'current' book behind you and look forward to the next.
When being interviewed about Sepulchre - in London, Oslo, Melbourne, Singapore, wherever - there is always a question about how long a book took to write, when did it start, when did it finish. Most writers find this a difficult question to answer.
Did Labyrinth begin when we first bought our little house in Carcassonne in 1989, or when I first imagined the character who became Alaïs at Montségur in 1996. Or was it the moment in 2001 when I started to write.
Did Sepulchre start when we first visited Rennes-les-Bains in 1989? Or later, when I started to hear the folklore of that particular small area in the mid 1990s? Or when, in 2004, I imagined Léonie tapping her foot on the steps of the Palais Garnier in Paris, before Labyrinth had even published?
So, this time, I am setting a deliberate date. This is the last entry for the regular Sepulchre home page. It is a deliberate decision that, although there are still many translated editions the book still to be published - German and Polish in October, Slovakian and Spanish in November, the others all next year - I will say goodbye to it. I will stop writing, thinking, talking about what I have written and, instead, look to the future.
Today, I will begin to research - properly, not just thinking generally - about the next novel, which is due to be published in the UK in 2010. I will begin to work on those ideas that have been knocking about in my mind while I've toured and travelled for Sepulchre.
For any readers who'd like to be in touch - and, believe me, the feedback from readers is one of the things that keeps all writers going - there is still www.KateMosse.com. Otherwise, the Sepulchre website, like its sister Labyrinth site before it, will become an archive site. Great to look back to, great as a reminder, but part of the writing past - not the future.
So, à bientôt. The paths in the Labyrinth and the hidden spaces of the Sepulchre are still there for those who seek them. The novels themselves, I'm grateful to acknowledge, are in bestseller lists all over the world.
But, today, a new novel begins.
I am leaving the Sepulchre.
